The Little House in the Big Woods

By Laura Ingalls Wilder

Based on the real-life adventures of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House in the Big Woods is the first book in the classic Little House series.
     Four-year-old Laura lives in a log cabin on the edge of the Big Woods of Wisconsin, which she shares with her Pa, her Ma, her sisters Mary and Carrie, and their dog, Jack. Though pioneer life isn’t easy for the Ingalls family, they make the best out of every tough situation. They catch, hunt, and grow their own food; take trips to town; celebrate Christmas with homemade treats; and work together to complete the chores needed for survival and livelihood. Told over a year in their life, this book sets the tone for the rest of the series through its themes of hardship and family.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jul 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9780735253957

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) was born in a log cabin in the Wisconsin woods. With her family, she pioneered throughout America’s heartland during the 1870s and 1880s, finally settling in Dakota Territory. She married Almanzo Wilder in 1885; their only daughter, Rose, was born the following year. The Wilders moved to Rocky Ridge Farm at Mansfield, Missouri, in 1894, where they established a permanent home. After years of farming, Laura wrote the first of her beloved Little House books in 1932. The nine Little House books are international classics. Her writings live on into the twenty-first century as America’s quintessential pioneer story.

Reviews for The Little House in the Big Woods

[cbl_tn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very young Laura Ingalls (she celebrates her 5th birthday in the book) tells about life in a Wisconsin cabin with her Pa, her Ma, her older sister Mary, and her baby sister Carrie. Over the course of about a year, Laura describes the hard work of frontier life, interspersed with times for play and family gatherings.My fourth grade teacher read this to the class and I was bored to tears at that age. It didn’t speak to this child of the TV generation. I had no frame of reference for the kinds of chores that were part of the Ingalls family’s daily existence, and Laura was too young to interest a 9-year-old.My adult self relished the vivid descriptions of farm living. My own Midwestern ancestors likely lived in much the same way. I was struck especially by Laura’s description of her mother, who worked with joy and had just the right blend of firmness and gentleness with her children.I highly recommend listening to the audio version if you can get your hands on it. Cherry Jones’ superb narration enhanced the experience, as did Paul Woodiel’s fiddle interludes.

[micareads · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a re-read for me as it's been so long since I've been able to sit down and enjoy the story from another perspective. As an adult, it is easier for me to understand the simplicity behind the telling of the Ingalls' story and the way Laura Ingalls chose to describe the area in which she lived with such loving detail. It was lovely to visit the Big Woods and be able to visualize the area and the events she described.

[mattries37315 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Little House in the Big Woods recounts a little over a year in the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder living in the Wisconsin backwoods in the 1870s. Wilder recounts various events in her childhood that gives a modern-day reader a glimpse of what life was like in the northern frontier when your nearest neighbor was miles away, a trip to town a few hours would be an all-day affair, and wild animals of all sorts would visit throughout the year. Given the period written about and at what time Wilder wrote the book, there are things that would not be written or printed today however a responsible parent or educator would use that as an excellent teaching moment. And the illustrations of Garth Williams are a nice addition to the book and bring some of the stories to better perspective.

[marse_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a book I can't believe I didn't read as a child. I can't believe it's not required reading in elementary school both for its wonderful, straightforward language, and as an introduction to life on the wild frontier. Heck, one of my favorite books as a child was "Caddie Woodlawn" and this book would be a good companion piece. Anyway, I read it for the first time several years ago and was enchanted with the storytelling. There is something very simple, but honest about the writing that fits perfectly the characters and actions that take place. I've reread it as an antidote to the stress I've been feeling lately and I am happy to say it has helped. Wilder can describe quite mundane, though unusual for our times, chores in a way that makes them comprehensible, but interesting as well. The work they do throughout the year is seen, not as a burden, but as a loving duty to the entire family -- and everyone participates. The illustrations by Gareth Williams are a delight. Wonderful.

[quinton.baran · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I just finished reading this to my boys. I read it several times when I was a child and enjoyed it and that has not changed as an adult. This book is full of innocence - anecdotes of secluded life in the woods of Wisconsin in the later 1800's. There are a few stories of danger, but there is little tragedy.

[karenleefield · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would.

[delphimo_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

What a joy and an honest look at life in Wisconsin in the 1860’s. Laura Ingalls, a 4-year-old girl, relates the everyday struggle of life with clarity and joy. The story presents each season with the hardships and the simple pleasures. The story does not present the glossy picture as presented in the television series but shows the difficult road to survival. Food and clothing are not purchased from a store but are tackled by Laura’s parents. Can you imagine not going to a store once a week? The story drives home the difference from life in the 1860s and today: no television, no telephone, no video games. Toys are handmade items, and every animal provides many options.

[atreic · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Reading this story as an adult it really is striking how different the hard lives of isolated settlers were from our modern society. The book is a stark reminder that we don't know how easy we have it - we might be isolating away because of COVID, but that is a drop in the ocean compared to living in a small family of two adults and three children in a log cabin in the middle of the woods, responsible for all your own food, and spending the winters indoor with snow piled around the house.Told from the point of view of Laura as a 4 year old, the story is almost too saccharine to be true. Pa hunts and reaps, tells stories, and plays his fiddle. Ma works hard but cheerfully, churning butter, washing, cooking. The children mostly behave, and when they are not perfect there is a swift beating (which all feel is well deserved, and has been handed down the generations - pa tells the stories of when his pa beat him), in a way that seems excessive to modern sensibilities - whipping a four year old with a strap for striking her sister once who was tormenting her! There is a good sprinkling of morality tale too - their cousin is a lazy boy who cries wolf and doesn't help and no-one believes him when he gets stung all over by bees.The sheer skill that everyone has - how to make butter, how to cure skins, how to smoke meat, how to carve wood, how to tap maple syrup, hot to make hats etc etc - is really impressive. Having dabbled a bit in home crafts makes me even more in awe.But then it really was all life and death, wasn't it? It is a lovely story, sugar swirls poured on snow, dances, rag dolls. But you don't see the women giving birth in the wilderness, and you don't see the time the bear doesn't wander away, or the time there isn't enough food to get through winter.The environmental position is interesting. There is the time Pa holds his hand from shooting, because of the splendour of the stag and the bear. There is the fact they eat no meat all summer, to allow the young animals time to grow. But there is no suggestion that it isn't the right thing to do to smash up the bee hive and take all the honey (the bees will find another tree, and start again with the left over honey scraps), and there is great joy in the wonderful threshing machine.In general, a fascinating slice of life from a very different world.

[jonez-6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

4.26

One of my reading challenges was to pick up a favorite book from my childhood. So glad I picked up this heartwarming gem. It was a great pick-me-up during this anxious and uncertain time.

[john257hopper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this book and several of it successors as a child in the 1970s, but it is nice to re-read them as an adult with a different perspective. It is a perspective on a lifestyle very different from anything we have experienced, where Laura and her sisters, Pa and Ma live in the log house in the middle of nowhere, with very few interactions beyond occasional visits to and from various uncles, aunts and cousins, living their lives according to the seasons and the dictates of nature, and growing or making most of what they need to live. It provides a welcome contrast and escape from current reality. These editions are beautifully illustrated with the original Garth Williams illustrations.

[forsanolim · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I grew up with these books in a very real way. When I was very little, my mother read them to me and my siblings before bed; my family went on not one but multiple Little-House-themed vacations to places like Pepin, Wisconsin, and De Smet, South Dakota; and the audio recordings of the books accompanied us on numerous other family road trips. However, most of my memories of the series come from later books--from Plum Creek/Silver Lake onward--so it was a lot of fun to return to the earliest book in the series. I definitely remembered certain pieces of various stories--the maple syrup candy, the stump bear, some of the fiddle songs--but I definitely didn't remember it as the recounting of essentially a fictionalized year in Laura's childhood, from one autumn to the next.

[linyarai · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of my favorite childhood books

[marquis784-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This series brings back sweet memories from my youth. A time when books were important and not made into a movie. Although this series and many books have been modified for the masses, it isn't necessarily a negative thing as these stories may never have endured.

[fingerpost_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The first book in the Little House series is an autobiographical novel of Laura Ingall's young childhood. There is no plot per se, but each chapter explains some aspect or other of growing up in a bygone era when the family took care of all of their needs themselves, by farming, hunting, building, crafting, etc.I enjoyed it, but would have liked an actual story better.

[threadnsong · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book and the whole series, really, was a mainstay for me from the age of 7. I loved reading about the inclusion of nature into their lives, how they lived so close to such lovely woods, the story of Grandpa and the panther, Pa riding into town, playing on stumps, and all the sumptuous food. And I was fascinated (now perhaps even more so) about how Ma made stuff, like cheese, and cleaned and washed the house and clothes, all with a well and snow.Now, of course, I think of stumps in front of the little house and wonder, "What trees were there?" And, "Can panthers really chase a horse for that long distance?" and "Laura not wanting to do everything Mary or Ma told her to do could also mean she had a good sense of self." But the joy in the dance at Grandpas and the putting by of provisions and Pa's fiddle are still there and I do enjoy them much more.

[bookworm12_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Somehow I missed reading these when I was younger. I’m rectifying that now by listening to the series on audio with my three-year-old. I love the detailed descriptions of their life. Hunting, household chores, dangerous animals in the woods, all told from a child’s point of view. Even simple life becomes fascinating. Cherry Jones narrates the books and she’s just perfect!

[bookwyrmm_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fun for children who want to know what life was like back then, but no real story.

[ashleytylerjohn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very sweet, very charming, very gentle, timeless classic that I've never actually read before. What a wonderful evocation of an increasingly alien-seeming lifestyle! So glad I finally got around to experiencing it. Only lacks the final star because I wasn't emotionally drawn in--there are no high stakes, just the happy passing of time with a nice family living simply and appreciating what they have.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).

[macthekat82 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My mother read this to me, then I was a child - around then I was ten I think. It is just one of the books I associate with loving and cosy evenings before bedtime. She read the first few books to me and I ended up getting the rest on audio book and listen to them. I now have her copy of them, but I have not re-read them since.

[stahl2ricco · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a nice book to read with my 9 1/2 year old daughter! It gives a very clear of life at that time, and sometimes offers step-by-step details about how certain things were done, like making cheese! It's funny, at times it felt like those were simpler times, and other times it felt like those were the hardest of times! Maybe simpler due to what they had, and harder due to the labor it took to obtain those things! My daughter would give this 5 stars, I give it 3 1/2 for the story - but 5 for time spent with her!

[haymaai · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read ‘Little House In the Big Woods’ by Laura Ingalls Wilder this spring break after this story was highly recommended by one of my students, and she procured the novel for me to borrow. Not having read any of the other books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, I was surprised to be transported to a lifestyle of familial survival in the Wisconsin wilderness in the 1870s. It was most shocking to find how removed our lives are from those of the settlers of that time. I was especially confronted by how much our dietary habits have changed since that era. While the settlers fed on ample amounts of ham and bacon cooked with lard, as well as dried meats during the harsh winters, I assume more vegetative habits to reduce cholesterol and to remain healthy. In addition, when spring arrived, the settlers consumed large amounts of fresh maple, to which they made into snow candy, as well as other concoctions served with generous amounts of maple or honey. If ever a diabetic person were to have existed during this time, an extended life would certainly be inhibited by their dietary pleasures. I was so moved by the simplistic lifestyle of these settlers, and how they exacted enjoyment and gratification from the music of a fiddle or a story told nearby the warmth of the stove. Cell phones, televisions, and computers were certainly unheard of, and the diversions from hard work were limited, but throughout the novel, I was impressed with the strong familial ties that family members extended toward one another. There was always the love of home and of family, in caring for each other and eking out a means of survival in the wilderness. No wonder my third grade student found this book gratifying and rewarding.

[lesliemuir · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Little House in the Big Woods is the first book in the Little House series that chronicles Laura Ingalls Wilder's life as a pioneer child moving across the country in the mid-1800s. This is an almost-all-the-way true account of how Laura remembers her life being like, and this book deals with her time in the big woods of Wisconsin, still out East living with Pa and Ma under the tall trees. Everything in this book is very nostalgic, not just for her own childhood, but for a time long gone when things were plain and simple. This is reflected in the simplistic turns of phrase that are used to explain the basics of every day life, as is necessary for modern audiences who have no idea what it's like to churn butter or chop fire wood or live as they did back then. The theme of nostalgia is cut with the theme of impending change as Ma and Pa begin making plans to start a wagon journey out West. Laura isn't thrilled and knows she'll miss the Big Woods, but the scene is set nicely for what will be a massive coming of age story that spans the whole country. As a history buff, I love that this is a pioneer story remembered by someone who has gone through their whole life, seen the advances that society has made, and then reached back anyway into her memory to write down how things were before and how her life changed dramatically as a child. Wilder only became famous for writing this series, so it's also interesting to hear an account from a plain person who was reliving her childhood as best she could.

[michellehewitt · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Easy to read out loud. Also, good for incorporating learning as far as crafts, food and activities.

[amelia_smith-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read this book as a kid, now I'm reading it to my kids. Unlike the nameless audio book we just ground through, this one is enjoyable for all three of us. The pace is good for reading aloud at bedtime. Chapters are short enough that they don't wear out a tired mama's voice and they never end on cliffhangers.

Because I first read it -- or my mother read it to me -- many decades ago, I'd forgotten pretty much everything about it, but it all came back as I read along. It's not a plot-heavy book, but it's a great picture of another time and a much-romanticized way of life. It's all very cheerful in the books, but life in the woods sounds terribly isolated.

I'm looking forward to re-reading the rest of the series.

[elliepotten · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm waaaay behind on the Little House readalong I was meant to be taking part in this year, so I finally picked up the first book to get started - and it was wonderful. Set in the early 1870s in Wisconsin, it's an autobiographical year in the life of four year-old Laura's pioneer family - Ma, Pa, Mary, Laura and baby Carrie - and their log cabin in the woods. What really struck me was how connected the family is to its surroundings: how the shifting seasons are enjoyed; how the natural world is respected and seen as something to coexist with, not conquer; and how each meal, each foodstuff, each item for the house is carefully planned and created from scratch, often with help from Laura's wider family. It's a wonderful antidote to modern living, with charming illustrations to add to the reading experience, and I loved every minute. It's a rose-tinted tale to be sure, and it lost half a star for a couple of slightly muddled descriptions of the objects and processes Laura observed - but they were minor gripes. Roll on book 2!

[katieloucks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I did this as a play!!!

[bagpuss-3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I adored the TV series “The Little House on the Prairie” that was on in the 1970s and 1980s, so I was pleased to discover that the first book by Laura Ingalls Wilder was published in the 1930s as I thought I could use it for my decades challenge - but after making arrangements to borrow the book, I discovered I’d already covered that decade!

Having made the effort to get hold of it, I decided to read it anyway. It was nothing like the TV series. In this book, Laura is only 4/5 and she and her family live, like the title suggests, in a Big Wood. They are isolated, being the only house for miles around - they hadn’t yet made it to Walnut Grove where the programme was set.

Laura, Mary and Carrie (who is just a babe in arms and not mentioned very often) had a very traditional upbringing where children were “seen and not heard” - they weren’t even allowed to join in with conversation around the dinner table, having to remain completely silent. Pa tells them stories (many with a strong moral message) and sings songs whilst playing his fiddle, and Ma teaches the girls how to cook and clean and sew! Several times being whipped is mentioned and it happens to Laura once after she slaps Mary - “Then he [Pa] took down a strap from the wall, and he whipped Laura with the strap”. Kind of horrific thinking of a child who has only just turned five years old being whipped, but I suppose that was just a sign of the times!

In reality, Laura was only three when the family lived here, but was urged to age herself by two years in the books, so there is a bit of ‘artistic license’ here!

It was very interesting seeing how they survived. It seems that food was plentiful and that they lived quite comfortably. It really is a social history, and despite it being aimed at small children I did enjoy it. I spent the following afternoon reliving my childhood by watching clips of the TV show on YouTube!

[bookconcierge · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Audio book narrated by Cherry Jones

This classic children’s book is the first of the “Little House” series in which Wilder recounts what life was like for her and her family in late 19th century America. In this book Laura is but five years old and has never seen a town or a store. She is completely reliant on her parents for food and shelter, and on herself for entertainment. Fortunately she is part of a strong family unit with plenty of love. She recounts the hard work her parents, and other pioneer families, had to do in order to survive and thrive in an undeveloped land. I love how she describes every detail from making straw hats to maple sugar to smoking venison and putting up food to last them through the winter. There are a few inconsistencies that children wouldn’t notice (I certainly never did), but I can forgive her for those.

Cherry Jones is wonderful narrating the series. She really brings the family to life, performing a story that is in turns heartwarming and scary and tender and inspiring. Wilder imparts some important life lessons in the process of keeping the reader enthralled. It’s no wonder the books have endured for nearly a century.

[dcavin-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Good, wholesome stuff. Really makes you think about how much work had to be done just to live. We whine if our phone needs to be charged.

[jpemmrich5 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Little House in the Big Woods is the story of Laura Ingalls as a child. The book tells the tales of Laura and her family living in the woods of Wisconsin in the 1860's. With stories about long winter days, churning butter, making molasses candy, pa playing the fiddle, dancing at grandpas and going to town. It was a different time. I grew up watching the Little House show but have never actually read the books. I enjoyed the book a lot. I think that it is told in a way that would appeal to young children. Children can learn about what it was like to live a long time ago, without tv, stores on every corner and the preparation that goes into making food and storing for months when food is harder to come by. There is a lot about making and storing food in the books, because a lot of work went into feeding a family. Hunting, churning butter, preserving, making vegetables and fruit last for as long as possible without freezer and modern conveniences. I would love to read this and then try to make molasses candy like Laura and Mary, make our own butter and bread and learn about how things were done long ago.